Yes, I got teary-eyed about the pet food store scene. Not ashamed.

Key takeaways:
-A treasure, a dream, and a friend are those that you are willing to die to preserve.
-To take away a treasure, dream, or friend is the most disgraceful act.
-If someone is taking away what is precious to you, you must fight! Promise to avenge and fulfill that promise no matter what! ( )

Buggy isn't my favorite villain. What I do like in this volume are the modest hints at Nami's background and true self despite the persona she uses to survive. I love sneaky and clever she is, and she doesn't lose her calm until lives are at stake--then she reveals her inner conflict. But Luffy being Luffy, despite not being intellectually sharp, has an intuition about her. He's not afraid to invest in not just her ability to read a map but trust her despite how she tries to come off to others. Of course, Zoro's relation to Luffy is always something of glorious loyalty yet a comical "I'll kill you," kind of thing, and that takes off in this volume. ( )

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Title: Buggy the Clown
Series: One Piece #2
Arc: East Blue Part 2
Author: Eiichiro Oda
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 211
Words: 8K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_One_Piece_chapters_(1_186)

Luffy begs Nami to become a pirate and his crew's navigator, but she refuses and uses him as bait to steal the treasure of pirate captain Buggy the Clown. As Luffy and Zoro fight the Buggy Pirates, Buggy is found to have the power of a devil fruit which allows him to separate his body parts at will. With Buggy's crewmen defeated, Luffy fights him one-on-one. The volume ends with Buggy revealing that he knew Red-haired Shanks, Luffy's old mentor.

My Thoughts:

For a volume over 200 pages, not much happens. Luffy and Zoro make it to an island that has been taken over by Buggy the Clown and they get captured and fight and that's about it. There's a schmaltzy little piece about a dog guarding the store that his master used to own and it made me roll my eyes which is why this volume only gets 4stars.

The character design in One Piece is as unique as that by CLAMP. Once you see it you'll recognize it as distinctly Oda's. I'll probably include some art in a later review. This early in the series just doesn't seem like it's quite time.

★★★★☆ ( )

Loving the insanity of One-Piece and the continual build of the story. ( )

This second volume is as funny as the first but it is not as pleasing. Its central message that everyone has a personal treasure is overstated and this motif is becoming repetitive. Similarly, the invincibility of our heroes robs the plot of dramatic tension. These shortcomings are outweighed by the generosity of spirit that flavours every page. And in this volume the dog alone would make the book worthwhile. ( )